How to ship, process, manage & utilize rocket fuel around the Solar system
This is an open discussion about space [freefall] based fuels that will unlock cheaper, safer, easier space travel off of [& back on to] this planet & beyond.
My thought is having frozen blocks of water, ammonia, methane, CO2, etc. wrapped, sealed in some kind of reflective thermal barrier.
One could use little bits of the block as thrust by heating up the appropriate places.
It could be industrially crude, but would need sophisticated enough guidance controls.
If one is patient and time is not a immediate consideration then very little thrust is needed to launch and then brake it at its destination.
Slower transport takes longer but its safer & more efficient.
I suppose questions about accumulating/creating the ice block in the first place comes to mind.
Also where the best places are to aquire the ice in the first place is something to think about.
I'm thinking if some of those small [<1km] moons of Jupiter are mostly ices one might be able to propell & guide one into a 28 day orbit around the Moon that kept it always in the Moon's shadow.
Then one could mine portions of it and probably use a solar energy farm in space [or on the Moon] to process for maximum chemical energy storage.
If NASA and anyone else is serious about us becoming a space faring species they should get on board with space/freefall based fuels.
It could initially be a public-private initiative to get the first load of space based fuels and then test & try out technological means to utilize it.
Once the space economy gets going commercial interests will drive it on its own.
[Utilization] My guess is mobile orbiting skyhook assemblies & their partner hookplanes/hookjets are the way to go, but even there the best particulars have yet to be determined.
This is an open discussion about space [freefall] based fuels that will unlock cheaper, safer, easier space travel off of [& back on to] this planet & beyond.
My thought is having frozen blocks of water, ammonia, methane, CO2, etc. wrapped, sealed in some kind of reflective thermal barrier.
One could use little bits of the block as thrust by heating up the appropriate places.
It could be industrially crude, but would need sophisticated enough guidance controls.
If one is patient and time is not a immediate consideration then very little thrust is needed to launch and then brake it at its destination.
Slower transport takes longer but its safer & more efficient.
I suppose questions about accumulating/creating the ice block in the first place comes to mind.
Also where the best places are to aquire the ice in the first place is something to think about.
I'm thinking if some of those small [<1km] moons of Jupiter are mostly ices one might be able to propell & guide one into a 28 day orbit around the Moon that kept it always in the Moon's shadow.
Then one could mine portions of it and probably use a solar energy farm in space [or on the Moon] to process for maximum chemical energy storage.
If NASA and anyone else is serious about us becoming a space faring species they should get on board with space/freefall based fuels.
It could initially be a public-private initiative to get the first load of space based fuels and then test & try out technological means to utilize it.
Once the space economy gets going commercial interests will drive it on its own.
[Utilization] My guess is mobile orbiting skyhook assemblies & their partner hookplanes/hookjets are the way to go, but even there the best particulars have yet to be determined.
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